The Grand Ex Award
The Grand Pooh-Bah of experiential marketing. The top dog, the big cheese, the head honcho, the award numero uno, the—ok you get the point. Awarded to the highest-scoring campaign among all category finalists, the winner appears on the cover of the special spring awards issue of Event Marketer. 

2010 Ex Awards Category Descriptions
There are now 30 categories for every type of live event and experiential marketing campaign.  Please make sure you only enter events in appropriate categories. You may enter a campaign in as many categories as you’d like.

• Best Mobile Marketing Program (Separate B-to-B & B-to-C categories) - Awarded to the best mobile campaign. Note: Some kind of vehicle must be at the heart of the program.
• Traveling street programs, guerrilla campaigns, and other non vehicular-anchored campaigns should be entered in the B-to-C Multi-Venue Events category
• User conferences, trade shows, and non-vehicular road shows should be entered in the B-to-B Multi-Venue Events category.
• Best Activation of a Sports Sponsorship - Awarded to the most innovative event program leveraging a sports sponsorship. Judges will rate the event programs (of all sizes and length) on creativity, results, message, and method of activation.  
• Best Activation of an Entertainment Sponsorship - Awarded to the most innovative live event program born out of a music, movie, celebrity, or television sponsorship agreement.  
• Best Activation of a Cause Sponsorship/Tie-in - The best philanthropic event campaign. A tie to a charity or community cause must be at the heart of the program. Judges will look for integration of causes into the campaign and the benefits that the campaign brought to both sides (the brand, and the cause).
• Best Mall Event Program - The Ex Awards now recognize the best in mall marketing. Enter your best live programs that set up inside malls, shopping centers, and lifestyle centers. Note: Specific retailer-anchored event programs should be entered in the Retailtainment category.              
• Best Multicultural Event Campaign - The best event-powered campaign hatched to reach a non-Caucasian audience. Judges will focus on the idea and execution, but also the attention to detail, messaging, and ethnicity-specific elements.
• Best Nightlife Marketing Campaign - Handed to the brand that rocked the house after the sun went down. Judges will look at venue, exhibits, décor, messaging, and the overall experience that was created in bars and nightclubs.
• Best Pop-Up Store - The temporary retail environment that stopped traffic. Given to retail stores opened for a short period of time (permanent installations need not enter). Judges will analyze objective, execution, and results, as well as overall design of store, messaging, and overall experience of the environment.
• Best Retailtainment Event - Did it pack the parking lot and move piles of pallets? Yeah baby! Awarded to the event that invaded a retailer’s space with events that proved beneficial for both brand and trade partner. Includes single-store events and multi-store and multi-chain efforts. Note: The program must be 100% physically executed inside or outside stores. All general events that roam the country tied to retailers but don’t actually set up in the stores should go in the best single-venue or multi-venue categories. Pop-up stores should only be entered in the pop-up category.
• Best Press Event - The media, they’re strange beasts. Getting them to show up, take notice, ask questions, and then go back to the office and spread the word is no easy task. This category recognizes the press event that used creative tactics to invite the press, get them to show up, and wrap them around your finger with solid messaging, killer thematics, and an A+ presentation. Note: To qualify for these categories, the event’s attendees must be made up of at least 80% media representatives.  

• Best Production of an Event (Separate B-to-B & Consumer Categories) - Behind the scenes and way in the back of the backstage, there is a helluva lot going on. This category’s Ex will go to the most creative, extensive, outrageous, ambitious and delicious production of a consumer event. The lighting, the music, the script, the entire ensemble. Judges will look for you to take them through the actual production with insights into the long process between idea and execution. 
• Best Single Venue/Market Event (Consumer) - Awarded to the most strategic, most creative, best-performing brand event of the year. Did you make it memorable? Will the consumer ever forget? Note: All vehicle-anchored programs must be entered in the mobile marketing categories.  
• Best Single-Venue/Market B-to-B Event/Meeting - Awarded to the event that best took the message out of the board room. Includes sales meetings, user groups, annual shareholder events, proprietary events, multi-day meetings, awards galas, trade show-related festivities and parties. Note: Specific trade show-focused programs must be entered in the Best Integrated Trade Show Program category.  
• Best Multi-Venue Event (Consumer) - Awarded to the campaign that was so good it was staged and restaged then restaged again! Includes events that followed a sponsorship property from venue to venue, programs that moved across a region hitting similar venues (fairs, beaches, parks, etc.), as well as street/guerilla, nightlife, retail, and college efforts. (All vehicle-anchored programs must be entered in the b-to-c mobile marketing category.)  
• Best Multi-Venue Event (B-to-B) - Awarded to the b-to-b event program that did what no PowerPoint presentation could. Includes road shows, business theaters, proprietary events, new product introductions, media tours, client visit tours. (All vehicle-anchored programs must be entered in the b-to-b mobile marketing category.)   
• Best Proprietary Property (Consumer) - Did you pass on “sponsoring” a music tour or sports program to instead create your own? Then get recognized for having the moxie to do it yourself, control the environment, and get the job done with your own equity (instead of equity borrowed from someone else). Note: This category is for “self-branded, home-grown, company-controlled, 100%-owned” music tours, sports efforts, charity events, etc. If you are simply sponsoring another property, this isn’t the category for you. If it’s home-grown, then go for it! (Examples: Virgin Mobile Festival, Camp Jeep, Nike Run Hit Wonder, Nintendo Fusion Tour.) Note that we define a proprietary property as an event the brand owns and an event that consumers buy tickets to or win tickets to. Enter traditional events in other categories.
• Best P.R. Stunt - For one-shot events staged for one simple reason: Gain eyeballs and media hits. Awarded to the best, craziest, most creative p.r. event that served up hits and buzz, increased public awareness, overcame damage control, and uncovered measurable results. Events from both the b-to-c and b-to-b worlds are welcome. Note: Events that invite media to attend and stage the event around the media attendees should be entered in the Best Press Event categories.  
• Best Integrated Trade Show Campaign - The booths don’t mean jack without the right integrated trade show program. Were you the star of the show? Awarded to the campaign that drove traffic, funneled leads, identified prospects, and set trade show participation way apart from the competition. Note: This category isn’t about design of a booth; it’s about strategy and experience, engagement and results. Enter your booth design in the design categories.
• Best Vehicle Design - Includes design of exterior, interior interactives, and supplementary elements. Judges will take into consideration the design’s impact on the experience created. Note: Focus entry materials on design, creative, and manufacturing. There is no need to include results in the design categories. Just include everything from sketches to renderings to CADs and birds-eye blueprints, as well as real photos and videos of the vehicle.
• Less than 18 wheels: Awarded to the vans and other smaller vehicles that caused commotions this year.
• 18 wheels: Awarded to the big rig big wig that broke the mold this year.
• Best Trade Show Exhibit or B-to-B Environment - Awarded to the company that used a custom structure to create an unforgettable experience. The company that thought outside the typical ten-by-ten and created a trade show exhibit or an event environment for a meeting or conference that was creative, functional, educational, and entertaining. Note: This category will judge the exhibit only, NOT the marketing campaign that was activated around it. No need to enter results. Instead give us everything from sketches to renderings to CADs and birds-eye blueprints, as well as real photos and videos of the vehicle.  
• Best Consumer Environment/Exhibit - This category will recognize the best exhibit or environment from a consumer event program. If you created a campus fest on college campuses; used tents, modular structures, or inflatables in unique ways; leveraged architecture at spring break or on the street; or found new ways to turn a space into THE PLACE, this category is for you. Note: This category looks at structure only, not marketing objectives or results. So focus your entry on what you designed, why, what it was made of, how it fit together, and how the overall structure or environment was unique and special. Give us everything from sketches to renderings to CADs and birds-eye blueprints, as well as real photos and videos of the vehicle.  Please note: Mobile vehicles should be entered in the Best Vehicle Design categories.
• Best Green Event/Trade Show Campaign - Awarded to the best eco-conscious live program, the campaign that created an experience but also saved the planet (even if by just a lil’ bit). Judges will look at integration of green elements into overall marketing objective.
• Best 100% Virtual Event/Expo- For the experience that lived online instead of on-the-ground. Awarded to the best 100-percent virtual event, expo, seminar or trade show. (Note: If the virtual event was tethered to an on-the-ground event, enter in Best Event-related Web Site/Portal.)
• NEW! Best Hybrid Live+Virtual Program- Recognizes the best live campaigns that added a healthy dose of virtual edge. If your target could attend EITHER your live program or a virtual alternative, this is the category for you.
• Best Event-Related Web Site or Portal- Live events are fusing with online and the results are conversations that start sooner and live on forever.  Awarded to the web site or portal created specifically to amplify an event or trade show program.
• Best Use of Technology- From holography to touchscreens to customized consumer interactives, some of the most innovative technologies is coming out of the event industry.   Awarded to the event or trade show program that effectively leveraged new or creative technologies to take their experience to the next level.
• NEW! Best Use of Social Media- Did you connect your event to Facebook, tweet your hearts out to connect with attendees or get them talking?  Or create your own social media platform? This award recognized the event or trade show campaigns that best tied their live experiences to social media and used the combination to throttle reach and experience.